


The Price of Love

by afterandalasia



Category: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Community: disney_kink, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Post-Movie(s), Step-parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-24
Updated: 2011-09-24
Packaged: 2018-06-01 20:30:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6535198
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afterandalasia/pseuds/afterandalasia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Snow White could never have expected to find herself a stepmother in return.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price of Love

**Author's Note:**

> From the [anon prompt](http://disney-kink.livejournal.com/4400.html?thread=3563056#t3563056) at Disney Kink.
> 
> _"The girl in question marries her prince, only to discover that their husband has a daughter by a deceased wife. Now it is her turn to play the part of the evil step-mother."_
> 
> I don't know whether the original prompter wanted more of a 'history repeating itself' and Snow White or Cinderella (the prompt did not specify) _becoming_ an evil stepmother, but that was nt the direction this ended up going in.

She never asked much of her Prince.  
  
They had met in song, after all, a dream and a wish in the wishing well, which she knew was really just an ordinary well that bought up ordinary water, but she had to believe in some things. When she had bitten into the apple, it had been with the promise that it would make her dreams come true; she could remember the last thought as darkness enveloped her, that surely her dreams would not hurt like this. But then she had awoken with her Prince kneeling over her, with a look of hope and wonder on his face, and he had scooped her into his arms.  
  
Snow White supposed that sometimes you had to go through pain to get your dreams.  
  
They had been going to return to the castle where she had been raised, but as they turned the last bend out of the forest there had been flames licking at the sky. She cried out, and the Prince pulled her closer to him and wheeled his horse around without saying a word, and tears rolled down her face as they rode away from both of the worlds that she had known.  
  
"How did you know where to find me?" she finally asked, when they were far from the castle and night was falling. The stars were starting to appear bright in the sky, but if she looked back there was still smoke, and a red-orange glow. It made her shudder. "How did you know where I was?"  
  
"Your bird friends came and told me," he replied. She shifted slightly; she had never ridden for a great distance before, and his saddle was not meant for two. "I am sorry that it should have been this way."  
  
If she leant her head just right, she could hear his heartbeat. The motion of the horse began to feel soothing, his cloak wrapped around her warm. "You know..." she whispered, "I never did ask your name."  
  
"My name is Prince Ferdinand," he replied, with a soft chuckle in his voice. "I would have thought that your birds would tell you."  
  
"Oh, but they are not that smart," she replied. "They are just... kind... and sweet..."  
  
Even as she spoke the words, sleep overcame her, and she could not quite make out the last of his words as she slipped to slumber in his arms.  
  


 

 

  
  
The warm rays of the sun awoke her the next morning, and as Snow White went to rub her eyes and stretch she found an arm around her waist to keep her still. "Careful!" said Ferdinand. "Don't fall!"  
  
She clung to his arm, her muscles stiff and sore, then looked up at him and could not help the smile that spread across her face. Her Prince, true and real, the answer to her wish and the one who had saved her.  
  
"We're here," he said, and she looked round with her mouth in an 'o' of surprise. She had not realised that they had travelled so far, nor that there might be another castle so far from a town. They were at the gates; the castle was modest, less dramatic than her father's had been and less frightening in view. A courtier dressed in red appeared at the side of the horse and helped her to dismount, catching her as she stumbled, then she turned back to Ferdinand and again they embraced. His fingers brushed her cheek. "My beautiful Snow White."  
  
"Papa! Papa!"  
  
They both looked round, Snow White in surprise, at the sound of a young girl. She watched as a girl appeared in the doorway of the castle, in a white and red gown, and ran down the steps towards the Prince. She had free-flowing brown hair, bright eyes, and a pretty smile which faded as she caught sight of Snow White.  
  
"Papa, who is she?"  
  
Snow White as well looked questioningly to Ferdinand. The Prince stepped away, then scooped up the young girl into his arms; she could see the resemblance now. The girl looked to be perhaps five or six years old, and a little frightened.  
  
"Adelaide, I told you that I was going to the rescue of a very beautiful woman. This is Snow White."  
  
Adelaide looked at Snow White uncertainly. Snow White looked to Ferdinand.

He looked weary, dark smudges beneath his eyes from riding all night, but there was no hiding the fondness as he looked upon his daughter. "Adelaide is the light of my life," he said, speaking to Snow White though it was to Adelaide he looked, tucking her hair behind her ear. "I have raised her alone since she was but a babe in arms, and now she is important to me."  
  
The thought of the motherless child sent a pang to Snow White's heart, and she stepped forward cautiously, holding up her hand for Adelaide to take. "It is nice to meet you," she said. She thought of her own motherless years, and fatherless also, and knew that at least Adelaide had known her father would be there to protect her. "Your father is a wonderful man."  
  
“We are to marry,” said Ferdinand, and Snow White smiled more deeply. Her hand strayed to rest over his arm, warm and comforting. It had been a shock, of course, but many men in these days had lost wives and would remarry. It was better, after all, than being alone and with none to care for her should something happen to her father. Snow White was quite sure that–  
  
“No!” Adelaide cried. She wriggled in her father’s arms, hitting his shoulder until he was forced to let her slip to the ground. “No! I don’t want a stepmother!”  
  
“Adelaide-“ Ferdinand began, but she began to cry. “My sweet-“  
  
“Adelaide, I know that I can’t replace your mother,” Snow White said, softly, in the same tone that had been so comforting to the dwarves. “But-“  
  
“No!” she shouted, and this time Snow White was shocked into silence as well. “No!”  
  
Turning, she ran back into the castle, Ferdinand hesitating for a moment to give Snow White one desperate, fearful look, then turned to run after her. Left in the courtyard of the new castle, her lip trembled, but she forced herself to hold back tears and to hold her head high as she walked up the steps and into her new life.  
  


 

 

  
“I am sorry,” said Ferdinand later that day, when she had been bought inside and given new clothes and given a room where she could refresh herself. He had come to that same room, though she had stepped out into the corridor to talk to him for the sake of propriety, folding her hands neatly in front of her. “I did not expect her to react so... I suppose...”  
  
“Hush,” she said gently, taking one of his hands and enfolding it in hers. He smiled faintly, fondly, as she kissed his knuckles with the lightest of touches. “It will be all right. May I talk to her?”  
  
He hesitated, uncertain. “I am not sure that would be the best of ideas, Snow White.”  
  
“Let me try,” she said softly, and moved his hand so that she could kiss the tips of his fingers. He nodded without words, and bent to kiss her on the forehead, then after a moment more pressed his lips just to the corner of her mouth. It sent a little flutter through her body, bought a smile to her lips, and she let Ferdinand leave to call a maid to accompany Snow White with what she had planned.  
  


 

 

  
A rap on the door to Adelaide’s rooms. There was a long pause, and then a call of, “Come in!” that was probably trying to be more haughty than it really was.  
  
Snow White, alone now that she had dismissed the servant who had been following her, opened the door to the room. It was quite large, and sparse, and colder than she would have expected for a Princess. Then again, she hardly knew what it was like to be a princess with the way she had been raised.  
  
“Adelaide?” she said softly. The little girl – and she was a little girl, really – was sitting in the windowsill, her knees drawn up to her chest and arms wrapped around them. Her eyes were red from crying, her cheeks flushed. Snow White felt another twist of pain in the centre of her chest.  
  
“Go away,” Adelaide said. “I don’t want you.”  
  
“I bought you flowers,” said Snow White. She held up the bunch that she had picked, out in the gardens. Pretty pink and white flowers spilled out over her hands, the bunch held together with a ribbon. “Do you have a vase for them?”  
  
Adelaide hesitated, drawing the back of her hand across her nose with a sniffling sound, then turned and slipped down onto the floor. There was an empty vase on her dresser, and she bought it across to Snow White, holding it up two-handed.

“Thank you,” said Snow White, accepting the vase and slipping the flowers into it. She placed it on the table nearest to the door, then turned back to Adelaide and knelt down so that she was on one knee, at the girl’s eye-height. “I’m sorry that I didn’t get to say hello properly earlier.”  
  
The girl’s lip wobbled, and Snow White forced herself not to want to cry as well. “I don’t want a stepmother,” she said, in a very small voice.  
  
Snow White paused for a moment, then reached out and took Adelaide’s hand. There was not all that much difference in their sizes, though Snow’s was far paler, almost translucent in the sunlight from the windows.  
  
“My mother died when I was born,” said Snow White, softly, almost as if she was telling a bedtime story. “My father remarried, but his new wife didn’t like me at all. I’ve never had a mother, but I know how wonderful they can be, and how kind, and important. I know that I can’t be your mother, and you say that you don’t want a stepmother. But how about I just do my best to look after you, and to love you, and to love your father?”  
  
She met Adelaide’s eyes; they were blue, with a slight touch of green in them, a tone bought out by the tears there at the moment. The girl nodded, and then Snow White spread her arms for an embrace, and felt the offer accepted as Adelaide stepped into her arms.  
  
“The love is the most important thing,” Snow White whispered, and squeezed Adelaide tightly. “Don’t even forget, love is the most important thing.”


End file.
